Alex., Va. Man Charged With Death Threats Against Howard University Students

An Alex., Virginia man has been arrested and charged with posting online death threats to kill African-American students at Howard University.

John Edgar Rust, 24, was arrested Wednesday, and accused of posting the anonymous comments to the online message board 4chan in November 2015. The comments, which were riddled with racial slurs, detailed a plan to kill Howard students and contained the phrase: “It’s not murder if they’re black.”

Police said during their investigation, that they tracked an IP address to a Panera Bread location. Police said that’s where John Rust used the free Wi-Fi to post the threats.

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The accused John Rust was convicted in Loudoun County in 2012 of indecent liberties with a child and aggravated sexual battery. As a condition of his probation, he was prohibited from logging on the internet, the court documents stated.

Rust is facing a federal charge tied to the making of threats, which carries a maximum of five years in prison.